I took these question from "Someday I'll get there" whose blog title seems to describe my life but who also swiped these 20 questions from Dawn's blog. Confession: I changed one question to one of my own. Find it if you care to.

1. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? I wanted to be a ballerina. Then that changed to psychiatrist. So what did I end up being? A bureaucrat in the federal government which required some adept moves and skillful psychological assessments of the upper, middle and lower echelons. So, in a funny, way I guess I got what I wanted. BTW, I still dance!
2. What have you done in the past week to help someone else? I helped the librarian put away books. This is not as simple as you would think as the shelves are limited, more books are being added to the tightly packed shelves, so when you add one book you have to shift about 15 shelves' worth!
3. Who is the best-dressed person you know? My oldest and youngest sisters are the best dressed people I know. Altho I have a sister-in-law whose not too shabby either since she's retired her hobby farm shift!
4. What is on your nightstand? A stack of books to be given to the librarian, alarm clock, lamp, some weird but wonderful home-made Floridian pain salve that works on sore arms, Kleenex and a little flashlight.
5. If you were a cat, what kind of a cat would you be? I would try to emulate my adorable old (now deceased) cat, Dolly, who gave us so many years of laughter, pleasure and joy.
6. If you lived in a house surrounded by acres of trees, what particular type of tree would you want flourishing on your land? Now that's a hard question but right now I love the bottle bush trees down here and in Australia. The red blossoms decorate the ground in a wonderful way whilst the red "bottles" of blossoms add such cheery touches of colour to the street. I could go on and go about more trees so I'll stop now. Ok. I'd also have a few Norfolk pines.
7. What do you find to be very overrated? Television - so much of it is dreck. It's like sifting a sewer for gems. Second would be sex. It's like the outside world sends the message we are all fixated with it (likely we all are else we wouldn't reproduce) but the "sexiness" factor in advertising pushes a falseness whereas I think we should remember the wonderful intimacy good sex provides translates to love not profits.
8. How many email addresses do you have? More than I care to admit. But let's see. One for family & friends. Another for business junk. Another for fitness, physical well being. Another for my blog. Does Twitter count? I think that's it.
9. Have you ever felt replaced? Not only felt it but I was!
10. Would you rather watch football, baseball, or hockey? What a stupid question! None of the above.
11. What is the wallpaper on your phone? Are you kidding me? I'm an old lady...my cell is basic and I barely understand it enough to answer the damn thing let alone add wallpaper or text - jeez!
12. Name a lyric from the song you're listening to. "...drown in love's debris....I'll never learn to be just me first, by myself..." Carly Simon
13. Do you use a feed reader? Yup. iGoogle. Real Age.
14. What chocolate do you always leave in the box? The hard chewy ones but I'll eat even those when I'm in a sugar high.
15. Do words hurt you? Yes, on occasion but I always try to remember that it is I who chooses what to feel and oftimes the speaker did not mean it the way I took it.
16. Are you a talker or a listener? I'm both. Sometimes an excellent listener. Sometimes a non-stop talker. I try to be aware so that it's balanced as I hate being stuck in only one of those modes, myself, or with others.
17. Have you ever walked on the beach at night? Yes, in Daytona.
18. Who is your favorite professional athlete? Tiger Woods: he's such a wonderful role model for children, men and women. He's opened up golf in so many new ways. His self-discipline appears extraordinary. I know he's just a man, but his pedestal can't help but keep growing ever upwards.
19. Which TV show have you seen pretty much every episode of? Hmm. CSI.
20. Who presents the most challenges to you in life? Sometimes it's my husband, for with him, I must have patience. Sometimes, it's my daughter, for with her, I must learn to listen, not judge. Sometimes, it's with certain in-laws, as with them, I must simply accept. Sometimes, it's friends as I struggle to understand them. Mostly I am challenged by myself as my higher self expects so much while my baser self tries to wriggle away from creativity, self-expression, honesty, commitment, and self-discipline. It's always a struggle. But I do -- really I do -- try.

Thank you to the Universe

It's now 2009 with all the possible joy and fear that a new year portends. So to start it off on a positive note, I hereby express my gratitude to

- my family, near and far, for loving me despite my faults
- my friends for listening and supporting me through my ups and downs
- my parents, though gone. Thanks for having had such a good time. Had you not, I might not be here.
- my neighbours for their good humour and inclusiveness. Need to feel welcome? You should live here!
- my correspondents; those who take the time to send me personal notes or even routine jokes. Nice to still be connected albeit electronically.
- those who serve me locally and in the city. So pleasant. So helpful.
- the animals who enter my life through various means but who invariably enrich my life
- my teachers for their patience, their willingness to share their knowledge to help me learn
- those in whom I find fault for there's often a lesson to be learned, yes, even tho irked!
- my little town, my province, my country. What a great place to live! Who doesn't love Canadians and the Canadian way?! Yes, the weather can be a challenge but the views, the land, and our culture more than make up for it!
- and last, not least, those whose paths have crossed mine. It's always a pleasure.

I'm glad to be alive, to be able to dance, sing, make music and love. To cook and eat with gusto! To strap on my skates and glide (something we did today on the lake). To swim, paddle, walk, write, paint, golf, and collect and yes, even to dust for in dusting one is reminded of the feel of things. It's good to be alive. Economy be damned. It's good to be alive, to feel alive and especially to be living in Canada.

The Illusory Porcupine

With all the brouhaha over The Secret and its Law of Attraction, I can’t help but recall my own experience in this vein. At the time, about 20 years ago, I was reading Richard Bach’s Illusions after having enjoyed his Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Illusions contains some similarities to the Secret, one being: our true nature is not bound by space or time.

I read Illusions as my family and I drove the cross-Canada highway from Ottawa to Iron Bridge, a tiny wee town found in western Ontario, to visit my sister and her young family.

The whole gang of us soon took advantage of the snow to cross-country ski in the bush on a wonderful trail groomed by local enthusiasts. We too were enthusiastic and enjoying the day until one of the youngest, Amy, tired of the adventure. She had fallen over, was tired out, and having a stubborn nature, now adamantly refused to get up. Despite our entreaties, she screwed up her face and started to cry, more in frustration than from cold. She had just had enough!

I wondered what it would take to get Amy going again. She was too big for us to carry. She had to get up and ski home under her own steam. But how to get her past this “end of her rope” moment? Suddently inspired, I pointed to a stand of conifers facing us across the meadow. “Look, Amy! Look! There’s a porcupine! See it? C’mon, get up. Let’s take a look!!”

Everyone else was asking “Where, where??!!” as I worked at getting Amy back on her pins without falling on my own nether parts. Then I heard “There it is!” “I see it!” “I see it too!” and the excitement in everyone’s voices including Amy’s: “I see it, I see it!!” as she stood up, wobbling.

I was dumbfounded. I had to ask “Where is it?” feeling a little foolish since I had been the one to point it out. Everyone pointed. Sure enough, there was a porcupine clinging halfway up a tree facing us.

Now the miracle of this story is not that we got Amy going again although that is certainly one small miracle. No, the miracle is that I hadn’t seen a porcupine at all; I had faked the whole scenario…yet there it was: a porcupine! I had only wracked my brain for anything to motivate Amy to get up and get going. It's logical a porcupine might be in the woods but my thinking was, if that idea got her up and then she couldn’t see it (because really, it wasn’t there), why I’d just fudge things a little and say he’d moved over to the other side of the tree, and now we can’t see him. I’d never anticipated a real live porcupine!

The others were incredulous when I told them I’d dreamed up the porcupine.

“Aww, you must have seen it and didn’t realize you’d seen it…”

“Yeah, right. You did so see it…who are you trying to kid?”

Their responses ran the gamut from scepticism to derision. But the truth remains: I had never in my life (16 years of having lived in a bush town in Northern Ontario) seen a porcupine in the bush until the day one "appeared".

In the years since this incident I’ve only seen two more: one in Sudbury’s Science North exhibit (one put there on purpose for display) and another one we happened to see without any forecasting involved) in a tree on the edge of a field in Quebec.

I don’t often share this story because, of course, people don't believe it and it never fails to puzzle me. Coincidental? Yes. Law of Attraction? Had I unconsciously seen it but not consciously noted it? Who knows? But I’ve always wondered what part I played in that porcupine showing up just in time….